Blackjack Mulligan- April 7th
Jimmie Van Zant- April 7th
Will Smith- April 9th
Balls Mahoney- April 12th
Doris Roberts- April 17th
Milt Pappas- April 19th
Chyna- April 20th
Prince- April 21st
Al Ferrari- May 2nd
Morley Safer- May 19th
Alan Young- May 19th
Muhammad Ali- June 3rd
Kimbo Slice- June 6th
Sean Rooks- June 7th
Christina Grimmie- June 10th
Gordie Howe- June 10th
Janet Waldo- June 12th
Chris Warren- June 12th
Ron Lester- June 17th
Prince Be- June 17th
Anton Yelchin- June 19th
Ralph Stanley- June 23rd
Buddy Ryan- June 28th
Pat Summitt- June 28th
Dennis Green- July 21st
Tim LaHaye- July 25th
Miss Cleo- July 26th
A lot of names on that list that at first look may not be recognizable, so I'll talk about them a bit.
Al Ferrari was a 1,000 point scorer for Michigan State and played for the St. Louis Hawks in the NBA.
Alan Young was an actor who was in Mr. Ed, but also did the voice of Scrooge McDuck in the 1983 Disney made Christmas Carol.
Christina Grimmie was a singer who was on The Voice. She was murdered in Orlando the night before the Orlando Nightclub shooting.
Janet Waldo was a voice actress known mostly for the roles of Judy Jetson and Josie on Josie and the Pussycats.
Chris Warren was a musician who is known mostly for singing the DeGeneration X theme song with the Chris Warren Band for the group DeGeneration X in the WWF/WWE. At one point he performed the song live for their entrance.
Prince Be was one half of the musical group P.M. Dawn famous for a few 90's hits most notably "Set Adrift On Memory Bliss".
Tim LaHaye was an author who co-authored the popular "Left Behind" book series which would later spawn a set of movies.
I think the rest are pretty well known and if not, you can find out more with a Google Search or Wikipedia. To me, while most were stunned and heartbroken on the deaths of Prince, Ali, and Mr. Hockey, the two the shocked and saddened me the most were Christina Grimmie and Pat Summit.
I'm not going to say I was a big fan of Grimmie's but it really struck me when I heard she died. I knew I had seen her from somewhere and it wasn't The Voice, so I had to search for information on her. It turns out I did a search for her unknowingly a few months earlier and she was more known to me for an ASPCA commercial she did. I thought she was very talented and the more I read about her the more I was saddened. As for Pat Summit, I knew she wasn't in good health, but it was still sad to hear of her passing. She was one of the best basketball coaches of all time. I don't even need to put the disclaimer about being a Women's basketball coach because she was without a doubt the best in that arena. I am saying if she coached Men's teams, she would have had the same success. Not only was she one of the greatest, she carried herself with so much class and dignity. It really upset me to hear of her passing.
Most of the names didn't come as a complete shock, but I will say the death of Prince did come out of left field. So did the death of former NFL player Will Smith. Sadly his death by way of a road rage incident wasn't the only one for a former NFL player in the New Orleans area this year, as you'll see in a future list.
If some names appear to be missing on here, I may have overlooked some, but these were the ones that really meant a lot to me in the celebrity world. Outside of celebrities, the biggest loss of the year to me was my Grandma who passed away in July a month short of her 90th birthday. That will be the one that stings the most from this year.
I will have part three of the year up a little later unless something comes up. I had to make it a 4 part series sense the amount was so big. Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment